Obama's Weakness Provokes An Aggressive Russia, Say Analysts

President Obama walks away after shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during arrival ceremonies for the G-20 summit at the Konstantin... View Enlarged Image

While President Obama is conferring with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 economic summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, current and retired senior American intelligence officials fear he is blind to a growing threat from a resurgent Russia.

These officials say that Moscow continues to probe America's skies and seas with bombers and submarines, both to assert itself and to see just how far Russia can push Obama. In June 2012, Russian strategic nuclear bombers broke protocol and conducted maneuvers in the Arctic without alerting the U.S.

A month later a Russian Tu-95 Bear-H strategic bomber, capable of carrying nuclear-armed cruise missiles, entered American airspace off Alaska and California. Then in August, a stealthy Russian Akula-class attack submarine, designed to hunt and sink American subs, patrolled for weeks off Texas, Louisiana and Florida.

Intelligence officials have raised a litany of concerns about Russian behavior that, when taken together, form what they see as an alarming pattern:

Aggressive spying on the U.S. and allied governments at Cold War levels;

Systematic espionage, including ultrasophisticated cybercampaigns, against private businesses to steal their proprietary information;

Accelerated strategic weapons modernization to enhance the ability to blackmail the U.S. and its allies with thermonuclear destruction.

Despite its own sagging economy and massive U.S. defense cuts, Russia is upgrading its Soviet-era weapons and building new systems superior to America's. At the sprawling Sevmash shipyards in the Arctic port of Severodvinsk, Russian workers are busy building the world's most advanced nuclear missile-firing, Borei-class submarines. To the south, at the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant in Russia's Udmurt Republic, technicians assemble Bulava ballistic missiles to be launched from those subs. Their purpose: to deliver high-tech thermonuclear warheads to incinerate American cities.

The Borei-class submarines will be armed with between 16 and 20 of the latest Bulava missiles, each capable of carrying between six and 10 nuclear warheads.

"The one thing that keeps Russians in the big boys' club is their strategic nuclear force," former CIA director Michael Hayden told American Media Institute. "It's not at all surprising that's something that continues to receive investment."

"The president has to communicate to the Russians that he's tougher than he appears to be in public," argues Robert W. Stephan, a former 20-year CIA veteran.

Instead, the Russians see a pattern of weakness under Obama, analysts say.

As president, Obama has sought to reassure the Russians on many fronts. Unilaterally, he has slashed the U.S. tactical nuclear weapons arsenal.

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